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Saturday, January 31, 2015

33 is the New 19

At this stage of her career, each grand slam that Serena Williams DOESN'T win is one less chance she'll have to add to her expanding number of major titles. At 33, having already become the oldest #1-ranked player in WTA history two years ago, she has a finite number of opportunities remaining.

Playing in the final of the Australian Open, an event she'd already won five times in the past, against Maria Sharapova, a player she hadn't lost to in over a decade, you didn't really think she was going to let title #19 slip through her fingers, did you?

Though hard-hitting and hungry 19-year old Madison Keys came pretty close to giving the notion flesh-and-blood life in the semifinals, time
itself is the #1 opponent nipping at Serena's heels. It'll win, too. One day. The laws of nature say it's so. But it hasn't won yet. And it won't for a while longer, either.

Make no mistake, Williams' quest for slam immortality is the leading reason for the continuation of and overall objective for the rest of her career. To begin her 2015 with a sixth Australian Open title was always a potentially big "get" on her part, as it would relieve the pressure of a possible slam-less year and allow her to relax. While Billie Jean King has always liked to say that "pressure is a privilege" for the best players playing in high-stakes matches, it's also a burden. We saw how much of one it was for Williams through the first three slams of '14, as she struggled to live up to her lofty goal of claiming slam #18 and tying both Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on the all-time major title list.

Ending five months after it began, Serena's quest for #19 turned out to be a less time-consuming affair.

Pity poor Sharapova that her wait to finally defeat Williams for the first time since 2004, a losing streak that was extended tonight in Melbourne to sixteen matches, doesn't look as if it will have its last rites publicly recited anytime soon. After the Russian upset Williams to win Wimbledon and the WTA Championships eleven seasons ago, Serena's run of dominance began soon afterward when she defeated Sharapova in the 2005 Australian Open semifinals in an 8-6 3rd set after having faced down match points. As the pressure on Sharapova in this match-up has mounted over the years, she's never really approached a match versus Williams like she does those against other players. Experience has led her to understand that her best might not be enough to defeat Serena, taking her out of her own self-possessed gameday mindset. A player who never doubts her ability to win ALWAYS has doubt in her mind when Williams is on the other side of the net. Sometimes you can almost see it written on her face.

Sharapova has been playing with "house money" at this AO since the 2nd Round, when she escaped an upset-minded trap set down by fellow Hordette Alexandra Panova, who held two match points aginst her. With her 1st serve consistent enough to be a reliable weapon over the past two weeks, and with an offseason of hard work having improved her side-to-side defense, Sharapova entered the final having played like the best player in the draw over the last four rounds. While Serena had often struggled with slow starts, after her early close call, Sharapova had coasted.

As she led the parade through the Walk of Champions to Rod Laver Arena court tonight, one couldn't help but study her face to see if she felt Williams, walking just a few paces behind, bearing down on her. As the two walked across court to the sounds of Katy Perry's "Roar" playing in the background, the question was whether world #2 Sharapova's own mighty roar could possibly be enough to rule the night, or even make things interesting. As it turned out, what followed was one of her better accountings for herself in this decade-long losing battle against the best player of her generation.

But Serena's roar (as well as her "Come on!" exhortations), as usual, was simply louder and more lethal.

On the first point of the match, Sharapova failed to get back a Williams return of serve and fell behind love/15. Then 0/30. After holding a pair of game points, the Russian made an error off Serena's return of a body serve to give Williams a break point. Sharapova's double-fault put her behind 1-0. Serena ended a groundstroke exchange with a forehand winner for a 2-0 lead before Sharapova finally got a foothold in the match, holding at love for 2-1. In the sixth game of the 1st set, Sharapova twice went ahead on the Williams serve at love/15 and 15/30, only to see play stopped at 30/30 when a drizzle turned into a rain shower and the ball kids were sent scurrying all over the court with towels in an attempt to keep the lines dry until the Laver court roof could be closed. Why no one could read weather radar and know to close the roof BEFORE it began to rain is another question altogether.

During the delay, Sharapova remained in her seat in the changeover area, while Williams retreated to a dry corridor just off the court. Before play resumed, she was seen by a doctor and treated for the respiratory illness that has plagued her over the past week. When action began again, Serena opened play with an ace, then a winner to hold for 4-2. She'd win the first six points, breaking Sharapova's serve a game later for a 5-2 lead. Serving for the set, Williams played a bad game, falling behind love/40 before a big 1st serve and ace got her back in the game, only to double-fault and give back one of the breaks. In the next game, though, Serena used her defensive skills to keep a rally alive and then went up love/30 on Sharapova's serve when she failed to convert a half-volley attempt. Williams broke her serve at love with a backhand winner to take the set at 6-3.

While Williams' serving numbers hadn't been quite up to her standards (only 54% of 1st serves in, and just three aces) in the opening set, she'd won it fairly routinely on the strength of the rest of her game. In the 2nd, though, she raised her service game several levels, yet had to fight to prevent Sharapova from pushing the match to a 3rd set. In one of the best-played sets of their nineteen-match history, the 2nd lasted 1:04 and featured no breaks of serve. Serena hit fifteen aces in the set, but was still forced to engage in just the third tie-break in the series' forty-two total sets.

Consistently, after Sharapova changed up her patterns and used an occasional drop shot to claim an important point, or Williams committed a few errors to put herself into trouble, Serena's serve bailed her out of possible danger. Meanwhile, Sharapova, after having lost ten straight points on serve and fallen behind 15/40 while down 1-0 in the set, pulled out two aces and another unreturnable serve to hold. After trailing love/30, Williams then cracked three aces in four points to hold for 3-2. In game #7, Serena failed to convert a GP after she'd lost a point due to the "hindrance rule" when she yelled "Come on!" a tad too early on what she thought was going to be a wide ace to the ad court. Sharapova got to break point, but hit a return wide. Getting another chance at a game point, Williams smashed the same wide ace to the ad court that she'd take away from herself just moments earlier, holding for 4-3.

Sharapova held with an ace, then Williams held at love. Serving down 5-4, Sharapova double-faulted to stand at 30/30, then missed on a crosscourt shot to give Serena a match point. But the Russian hit a winner into the right corner, staving off her third MP of the tournament. A drop shot that Williams failed to get back over the net gave her a game point, and she held for 5-5. After most every point, both players were yelling "Come on!," spurring themselves on or admonishing their actions. Sometimes both voice even filled the air at the same time. Williams held with an ace for 6-5, then Sharapova's routine hold sent the set to a tie-break.

On the first point of the TB, Sharapova's hopes to extend the match rose as she smacked a forehand winner off a Williams 1st serve to go up a mini-break at 1-0. But Serena's big returns helped win both of Sharapova's two serves, then she held to go up 4-1. Williams' third error of the TB cut her lead to 5-4, but her forehand return winner gave her a match point at 6-4. A big forehand saved MP #2 for Sharapova, but then Williams stepped up to the line with her first MP of the day on her own serve. She fired an ace and dropped her racket to celebrate... only to have the net cord alert sound. After a priceless, hands-on-hips reaction, Williams retrieved her racket and went back to the line... and then fired another ace, winning her twenty-seventh of thirty-one 1st serve points in the set.

Serena then turned to chair umpire Alison Hughes and asked, "Now?" With permission granted, she went to the net to shake hands with Sharapova following her 6-3/7-6(5) victory... then the jumpy celebration was on.

Having now lost sixteen straight matches to Williams, and twenty-six of the last twenty-seven sets, Sharapova will now arrive in Melbourne next January with her last title there having come eight full years earlier. While the great 2nd set was full of hard-hitting competition in which Sharapova forced Serena to dig down and take the match (which she did, as usual), it was also a stretch that may give the Russian an ounce of much-needed additional confidence that might prove the difference in finally producing her first win over Williams in over a decade. Especially if they meet on the clay, where Sharapova has dominated the tour in recent years... well, except for when she's played Serena, that is.

Either way, there was at least enough in this match to allow Sharapova to talk herself into believing she might soon have a chance against Williams. Maybe she'll get there again. Maybe not. But Maria won't stop trying. And that's enough to give her hope.

Meanwhile, Williams can breath easy as Evert and Navratilova slide into her rear view mirror on the all-time slam list. Steffi Graf's twenty-two is now dead ahead, and even Margaret Court's pre-and-Open era spanning twenty-four might be around the far corner and capable of being challenged. Winning this Australian Open gives Serena that chance, mostly because, unlike '14, it's enabled her to calm her nerves and allow herself to relax before she heads to Europe this spring and summer in search of another major crown. It could make all the different between a very good -- for Serena -- season and an epic one. On ESPN after the match, Williams said she felt like she was 25, not 33.

Uh-oh.

Relax, and the world cheers with her. For #19, and possibly soon #20... and who knows how many more after that.

=DAY 13 NOTES=...yesterday, Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Lucie Safarova both picked up their first career slam doubles titles, as they defeated Chan Yung-Jan & Zheng Jie in the final. BMS previously won a mixed crown in Melbourne.

...in today's junior girls singles final, unseeded Slovak Tereza Mihalikova took out Brit Katie Swan, the #14 seed, 6-1/6-4. Mihalikova is the first Slovak to win the AO juniors, and the first girl from her country to take a girls singles slam since Kristina Kucova own the U.S. Open in 2007.

...a big upset in the Wheelchair women's final. After Yui Kamiji & Jordanne Whiley claimed their fifth straight slam doubles title yesterday, world #1 Kamiji was denied an AO sweep in the singles final as she attempted to become the reigning champ in all seven slam singles and doubles disciplines.

Kamiji, 20, was taken out by Jiske Griffioen 6-3/7-5, as the Dutch 29-year old won her first slam singles title to go along with her nine major doubles titles. Griffioen's only other slam singles final came at Roland Garros in 2013, and last year she was defeated by Kamiji in the semifinals at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and U.S. Open.

A photo posted by JiskeGriffioen (@jiskegriffioen) on Jan 30, 2015 at 10:21pm PST

So, Kamiji is now 7-0 is slam singles & doubles finals for her career... other than in the AO singles decider, where's she's now lost the last two years. In 2014, German Sabine Ellerbrock defeated the then teenaged Japanese woman. Kamiji defeated Aniek Van Koot in the finals of both Roland Garros and the U.S. Open last year. Griffioen defeated the #2-seeded Van Koot in this year's AO semifinals.

...the mixed doubles title will be decided on Sunday, with Martina Hingis & Leander Paes competing in the final, as the Original Swiss Miss looks for her first slam crown since 2006.

Yep, he's right. Hingis has won a combined fifteen slam singles, doubles and mixed titles, while Paes has fourteen in doubles and mixed. Of course, the reigning AO mixed champs might have something to say about it.

...DAY 13 SLIGHTLY SURPRISING RESULT: not sure I would have called this one exactly this way. But, then again, at least two other good candidates (Venus & Serena) never win any of those fan polls that the WTA conducts.

...DAY 13 REALITY CHECK: Meanwhile, Lepchenko is on to Fed Cup... where she'll once again be overlooked in favor of other big names dropping in on the roster. It likely means Varvara won't see the court in a live match.

...and, finally, I'll be back sometime tomorrow with some sort of recap of the final day of action in Melbourne, including the men's final. How much? Who knows. When? Not sure... considering when Djokovic and Murray get together for a best-of-five match, the chance of a four or five hour marathon are always a lingering possibility.

After that, a quick January awards ceremony and a Fed Cup preview will be on deck for the coming week.

4 Comments:

I'm still thikning about the match from last night. It was such high quality. I think what I enjoyed teh most was that it displayed how much both players have grown and matured through the years both on and off the court; that both players always fight to improve very small aspects of their games to get better; that they never give up. The capacity to improve is powerful. The match was inspiring.

Both players really are great role models for everyone.

Serena stayed calm, whereas in the past, her temper would have gotten the best of her. She redirected the negative energy beautifully. That's personal growth. The fact that her game is so consistent now and that she can consciously change gears at any moment shows her tennis growth.

Maria gave such an eloquent runner-up speech yesterday. She is so classy. I like that she enjoys facing the top players and relishes the battle first and foremost. Her movement is really improved. Her anticipation receiving the serve was good; AND her serve was actually really good, too. Her fight in the second set inspired the world. I think she won a lot of fans last night.

Well, let's not overstate it, though. She still won in straight sets, had her serve broken just once (and really did it to herself when it happened, hitting two of her four DF in the match) and had 18 aces without having to go to a 3rd (just six off her shared tour record of 24, which she surely would have broken if it'd gone the distance). Just sayin'. :D

Maria finally looked like a #2 player facing a #1, though. She often hasn't come close to that over the last ten years.